Frankly Communications
#GrammarGuide: Commonly Mispronounced Words (Part I)
Our #GrammarGuide mission is to save the English language! Alright (informal of all right), perhaps that’s a bit overzealous, but at the very least we can help you avoid some common mistakes.
While we’ll usually focus on the written word, conversation is an equally important tool in public speaking, PR, media and business relations… but also in everyday life! That’s why we wanted to take a look at some commonly mispronounced terms.
While people generally spell these words properly, they often speak them incorrectly for a variety reasons—admittedly, I'm one of those people. We’ve made some lists by issue; this week we’ll look at adding and skipping letters when saying words.
Pronouncing Nonexistent Letters
In this category, letters are replaced with others or the letter sounds are simply added in where they shouldn’t be. Here are a few examples:
Espresso, not “ex-press-o”
Especially, not “expecially”
Supposedly, not “supposably”
Et cetera, not “excetera”
Nuclear, not “nucular”
Toward, not “torward”
Height, not “heighth”
Niche, not “nitch” – prounounced “neesh”
Not Pronouncing Existing Letters
In these instances, some poor letters are getting left out all together. Which, of course, makes those little letters very sad—so don’t forget about them!
· Antarctic, not “Anarctic”
· Arctic, not “Artic”
· Picture, not “pitcher”
· Asterisk, not “asterick”
· Candidate, not “canidate”
· Accessory, not “assessory”
· Clothes, not “close”
· Forward, not “foward”
Original Author: Niki Hale